Plaintiff Hani Tadros filed an action seeking to overturn the final decision of the Commissioner of Social Security ("Commissioner") denying his application for Disability Insurance Benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act. On July 22, 2011, the Court remanded the case to the Administrative Law Judge for further evaluation. Plaintiff now seeks to recover his attorneys' fees pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act ("EAJA"), 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d), arguing that the Commissioner's position in defending the ALJ's decision was not "substantially justified." For the reasons set forth below, the Court concludes that the Commissioner's position was not substantially justified because he failed to address evidence from Plaintiff's podiatrist that may have been relevant to the determination of Plaintiff's residual functional capacity. Accordingly, the application for fees is granted.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff applied for disability insurance benefits on January 3, 2008, alleging that he became disabled beginning on June 8, 1998 due to headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome, and problems with his back, neck, and upper extremities. The Social Security Administration denied the application initially and on reconsideration. Following an administrative hearing, an ALJ found that Plaintiff is not disabled because he is capable of performing a significant number of jobs available in the national economy. The Appeals Council denied Plaintiff's request for review, and he sought relief in this Court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). Plaintiff made three main arguments for reversal, asserting that the ALJ erred by (1) discounting or disregarding medical evidence and vocational expert testimony in making a finding on his residual functional capacity (RFC); (2) determining that he could perform his past work where the vocational expert had testified otherwise and where such work was found not to be substantial gainful activity; and (3) incorrectly assessing the weight to be given to the opinion of his chiropractor.

This Court was not persuaded by the vast majority of Plaintiff's arguments. Indeed, the Court rejected four of the five grounds Plaintiff asserted in support of his first argument challenging the RFC determination, and rejected the second and third arguments in their entirety. Ultimately, the Court found that Plaintiff presented one viable ground for reversal - that the ALJ ignored a letter from his podiatrist, Dr. Monif Matouk. As the Court noted, Dr. Matouk's letter opined on a wide range of Plaintiff's alleged medical conditions that are beyond the scope of his qualifications as an acceptable medical source, including a brain aneurysm, arthritis of the cervical spine, nerve entrapment in the upper extremities, migraine headaches, anxiety and depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sleep apnea. As a podiatrist, Dr. Matouk is an acceptable medical source solely for the purpose of establishing that Plaintiff suffers from impairments related to his feet and ankles. See 20 C.F.R. § 404.1513(a)(4). Therefore, the Court concluded that the ALJ did not err by disregarding Dr. Matouk's opinions as to those conditions beyond his expertise.

However, the ALJ should have considered and addressed Dr. Matouk's statements concerning Plaintiff's foot and ankle conditions, namely his assertions that Plaintiff has diminished range of motion in his foot and ankle joints and nerve damage that makes him unstable and prone to ankle sprains, and that his foot condition generally causes severe pain and edema after less than half an hour of standing or walking. These statements may have been relevant to the RFC determination since they seemingly contradict the RFC's specification that Plaintiff can sit, stand or walk for about two hours in an eight-hour workday. As the Court noted, the ALJ did not mention or discuss Dr. Matouk's letter. It is conceivable that the ALJ found the letter unpersuasive given that it is dated nearly six years after Plaintiff's date last insured (DLI) and does not specify the time frame of any assessment, diagnosis, or course of treatment, nor does the factual record contain any treatment notes, medical records, or other documentation to substantiate the statements in the letter. As the Court noted, to the extent Dr. Matouk's letter was insufficient to allow the ALJ to determine if Plaintiff had any foot or ankle limitations or whether Plaintiff was disabled prior to the DLI, the ALJ was obligated to contact Dr. Matouk by mail or telephone for clarification. See 20 C.F.R. § 404.1512(e)(1). This lack of information, together with the ALJ's failure to mention or discuss the letter, rendered this Court unable to determine whether the ALJ adequately considered the relevant statements from Dr. Matouk or whether Plaintiff's alleged foot and ankle impairments produced symptoms that are unaddressed in the RFC. Accordingly, the Court concluded that the ALJ failed to build an accurate and logical bridge from the evidence to his conclusion that Plaintiff is capable of employment, and remanded the matter for consideration of the evidence related to Plaintiff's foot and ankle conditions only.

On October 19, 2011, Plaintiff filed a timely application asserting that he is the prevailing party in this action and requesting attorneys' fees in the amount of $5,261.25 and costs in the amount of $366.62. (Docs. 28, 29). See 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(B); see also Shalala v. Schaefer, 509 U.S. 292, 302 (1993). The Commissioner does not object to the reasonableness of the amount requested, but argues that Plaintiff is not entitled to any fees at all because the Commissioner's position that Plaintiff was not disabled was substantially justified. (Doc. 31). In his reply memorandum, Plaintiff amended his fee request to include 1.5 hours spent preparing the reply and now seeks a total of $5,520 in attorneys' fees and $366.62 in costs, for a total of $5,886.62. (Doc. 32).

DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

Under the EAJA, a court may award attorneys' fees to a prevailing party in a civil suit against the government if the government's position was not "substantially justified." 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A). To be eligible to receive a fee award, a party "must show that: (1) [he] was a prevailing party; (2) the Government's position was not substantially justified;

(3) there existed no special circumstances that would make an award unjust; and (4) [he] filed a timely and complete application for fees." Potdar v. Holder, 585 F.3d 317, 319 (7th Cir. 2009) (quoting Kholyavskiy v. Holder, 561 F.3d 689, 690 (7th Cir. 2009)). Here, it is undisputed that Plaintiff filed a timely and complete petition and is a "prevailing party," see Schaefer, 509 U.S. at 300, and the Commissioner does not assert that "special circumstances" exist. Thus, the only issue is whether the government's position was substantially justified, meaning "justified to a degree that could satisfy a reasonable person." Potdar, 585 F.3d at 319 (quoting Pierce v. Underwood, 487 U.S. 552, 565 (1988)). To be substantially justified, a position must have a reasonable basis in both fact and law, and there must be a reasonable connection between the facts and the legal theory. Stewart v. Astrue, 561 F.3d 679, 683 (7th Cir. 2009); Cunningham v. Barnhart, 440 F.3d 862, 864 (7th Cir. 2006).

The EAJA "'is not an automatic fee-shifting statute,'" so merely prevailing against the government does not entitle a party to fees. Potdar, 585 F.3d at 319 (citation omitted); see also Frost v. Astrue, 369 F. App'x 721, 722 (7th Cir. 2010) (citing United States v. Thouvenot, Wade & Moerschen, Inc., 596 F.3d 378, 387 (7th Cir. 2010) (holding in the consolidated case of Park v. Astrue that a remand does not necessarily entitle a claimant to attorneys' fees); Berman v. Schweiker, 713, F.2d 1290, 1295 n.18 (7th Cir. 1983) (holding that "merely because the government loses a case, a presumption does not arise that the government's position was not substantially justified."). Nor does a fee determination rest solely on the number of issues on which the plaintiff prevailed; rather the inquiry involves an assessment of the complete litigation, including pre-litigation conduct and the ALJ's decision, and the Commissioner bears the burden of proving that his position was substantially justified overall. Stewart, 561 F.3d at 683-84; Conrad v. Barnhart, 434 F.3d 987, 990 (7th Cir. 2006).

B. Analysis

Because the Commissioner prevailed on all challenges to the ALJ's decision except the one concerning Dr. Matouk's letter, the only issue for this fee petition is whether the government was substantially justified in its position that the ALJ did not err by disregarding the letter. The Commissioner argues that the ALJ was substantially justified in not discussing Dr. Matouk's letter because the letter post-dated Plaintiff's DLI by nearly six years, it opined on conditions unrelated to podiatry and for which Dr. Matouk did not provide treatment, it stated no specific functional limitations, and it was not supported by other medical evidence in the record. (Doc. 31 at 4). All of these points are well-taken. ...

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